Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah, welcome to the seventh and final teaching in this collection of sermons entitled, Reconstructing the Johannine Community which, because of its length, I shall be dividing into two parts. Today's teaching replaces an earlier one first given in 2001.

This course was created for those who have been called to priesthood service. This training is given by the Chavurat Bekorot (also known as the Holy Order) that originally came into being during the Ephesian phase of Messianic Community (Church) development toward the end of the first century to meet the needs of believers in a world where a counterfeit, gnosticised version of Christianity was by then in a majority. This was an early stage in the development of what would eventually crystalise out as the institution of the Roman Catholic Church.

The schism in the Body of Christ was already pronounced at the end of the first century AD with one of its leaders, Diotrephes, a leader of one of the many 'independents' then springing up (3 Jn.9). His name, which John has been led by the Ruach (Spirit) to deliberately record, means 'nourished by Jupiter (Zeus)'. That should give you a pause for thought as to what's happening in the spiritual realm. It is no accident that John has deliberately recorded it and this congregation as representative of no doubt many like it that had sprung up into existence. The apostates are in fact worshipping the Roman god Jupiter or Greek Zeus (their actual spiritual father, Satan - Jn.8:44) and Jupiter Puer (the son of Jupiter, the 'antichrist'), whilst claiming to worship Yahweh the Father and His Son Yah'shua (Jesus).

There is a civil war going on between the authentic Johannine Remnant and the Jovian/Zeusite apostates who were ever growing in numbers and strength. They will be in the majority henceforth and until Messiah returns. The true Body of Christ has always been a small remnant in various mixtures of purity and corruption. Our battle is to daily overcome the tendency to sin and so keep the corruption at bay. Like the dyke that separates the Dutch lowlands from the North Sea and flooding, we too are guarded by a dyke from the onslaught of the sea of the world, and that is the testimony that we proclaim in song: "the song of Moses the servant of Elohim (God) (the Torah) and the song of the Lamb (Yah'shua the Messiah/Jesus Christ)" (Rev.15:3, NIV). And this is our song:

"Great and marvelous are Your works, Master Yahweh almighty (Gen.15:2; Jer.16), just and true are Your works, king of the Æons (Ages).
Who shall not fear You, and glorfy Your Name?
Because You alone are Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart);
Because all the nations will come and worship before You;
because You are upright ('for Your righteous acts have been revealed' - Gk NIV.)"
(Rev.15:3-4, HRV).

My goal has always been to teach you to think, feel in the phronema, and move in the firstborn way of Johannine spirituality, using the very special symbolic language of the apostle John, the last of the 12 apostles, known by the Saviour as the 'Beloved Talmid (Disciple)'. The half century of heady days when the true Besorah (Gospel) had the Christian playing field all to itself have gone and believers must henceforth fight a war on two fronts: (1) against the backlash of paganism and the imperial cult on the one hand, and (2) against unregenerated apostates on the other presenting themselves as the 'true Christians'. There were, as we've seen, signs a very real danger of the original apostolic message being entirely drowned out by Satan's corrupting version (that would eventually become the Roman state religion) by the turn of the second century.

Our task, then, as both promoters and defenders of the original faith, is to carve out a secure and visible spiritual space for Yahweh's people in a very hostile world of competing denominations and ideologies. And though the Kingdom of Darkness is already offering considerable resistance by 200 AD, a light has been unleashed into the world that can never be totally extinguished (Jn.1:5). The reality of the resurrection has changed everything permanently. In the course of the centuries it will mix in different ways with the darkness and shine with different intensities and in a kaleidoscope of different colours and hues, each Christian community having particular strengths but also attendant challenges reflecting the kinds of struggle we have seen in the Seven Congregations of Asia Minor. Sometimes it will appear to be in the ascendancy but more often than not it will have to learn how to navigate a very tortuous path as a minority faith, and being forced into hiding like the Cathars up in the northern Italian mountains with the Catholic Beast in charge of the plains periodically sending our raiding parties in a bid to destroy them as alleged 'heretics'. This white becomes black, and black becomes white until the lie is told so often and for so long that nearly all of Christendom comes to believe it, with the lie being called 'historic Christianity' and the truth being branded 'apostate'.

For the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) of the second century and onwards, spiritual life is going to be marked by a mixture of joyful witness, adversity at the hands of an ever mutating and cunning adversary, and the need to survive against all the odds. All kinds of sects will emerge offering a safe haven for the Light for a while only to eventually be overwhelm by the darkness, causing the Children of Light to ever be on the move. The Empire will have benevolent rulers and influencers from time to time like Marcus Aurelius and Cicero but mostly it will be ruled by tyrants with a hatred of Elohim's (God's) people. For the true believers, finding a safe, stable home will be the greatest challenge, compromise will inevitably follow, and all the while society will be gradually leavened both for good and evil. Living in such a mixture of light and dark will be confusing and challenging at best, as it always has been. For a thousand years the Catholic Church will hold sway in the West and not be seriously challenged until the 11th century by the Eastern Orthodox Church (with which it will be quite similar) and in 16th century by the Protestant Reformation (which will be a radical departure). These changes will both release more Light into civilisation as well as introduce more chaos. Then Messianics will appear in the 20th century to yet again both release more light (Torah-knowledge) and create more chaos (it's own messianic heresies). Some nations will shine brigher than others during these centuries, with risings and fallings until at the very end of the 20th century a fresh attempt at restoration will be made.

What we are about, and have always been about, has been a mixture of reformation and restoration. We are not, moreover, alone. Yahweh works everywhere with whomsoever will listen to Him and obediently respond, each in their own sphere. And he does so in all sorts of unexpected places, evenm within the imperial cult and the institutionalised churches. Heaven does not put all its eggs into one basket but continually seeds truth in a multiplicity of places. There have been, and will be, many failures to be sure, with new communities being constantly reseeded as old ones fail. This is a nightmare for Satan to keep tabs on because he has no idea which will succeed and which will be his nemesis (for he knows one will), so he goes for the throat of all of them as best he can with the resources at his disposal, using his old tactic of 'massacring all the babes of Bethlehem in order to get the One'. The operation he is trying to manage is extremely complicated and is actually beyond his abilityt since he is a finite being and not Elohim (God), yet he is intelligent, devious and capable (as we all know) of doing incredible damage with legions of mostly cooperating demons at his disposal and plenty of duped human spies and agents too.

Ironically enough, the best chance of survival for these Communities of Light is the chaos of the world politic where Satan is heavily invested trying to steer and control it. Though he has millions of demonic legionaries and seasonally compliant human followers (because human are not reliable, let alone predicatble, as their wills clash sometimes with his), they are finite both in number and limited in terms of where they can be. Only our omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (ll-powerful) Heavenly Father has a clear picture of everything, steers overall history the way He wants it to go, and outwits the Adversary time and time again. Yet He must work within His own sovereignly established parameters that include free-will granted to humanity. It's this which makes everying so complicated but without it there could be no love. Love can only thrive in such mess, unfortunately, and so we must bear with the mess until these days are finally over and the Second Coming becomes the new reality.

Those who are of the Holy Order must be watchful, keeping an eye on what's going on around us, clearly discerning from day to day what Father wants of us and being in those places He has commanded us to go and doing what He has commanded us to do. In times of great persecution we must ever be on the move, as the first qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) were, save where Heavenly Father has commanded us to put down roots for a season in specially ordained gathering points which He supernaturally protects from the Enemy's predations. The history of this place, Kadesh-biyqah, is known to many of you, and how the Enemy has sought to destroy it time and time again. We have our scars to prove it which is why but we and it look so run-down! To presumptuously gather in places and at times when and where Yahweh has not commanded is to risk much destruction. Therefore walking in His will on a day-to-day basis is paramount. To that end, our relationship with Him must be actively cultiuvated and be our #1 priority.

The Melchizedek Patriatchs and Elders, then, have their hands full on a continual basis, for theirs is a very demanding and responsible calling requiring much sacrifice. They can only operate effectively with the full backing of their wives, their families and the lay members of the assemblies they preside over. Without echad unity of purpose and action, they cannot manoeuver, or serve in the way they need to, and this is a reason why the Enemy seeks to cause as much disruption as he can by attacking and destabilising families and local congregations. Again, most of you know what we have had to go through over the decades, the woundings and the betrayals, to simply still be here as a living witness. The family and the local assembly is therefore key. They must be strong, organised Heaven's way, be full of love, be disciplined, committed and evangelistic. Family life and witness out of local congregations are the core of its life, and where these fail, it fails. Where these are absent, the Order can but stagnate, something the Enemy knows well, so little wonder the enemy attacks families and local assemblies with such fury, seeking to cause division wherever possible. That is why we lay such a heavy stress on Holy Echad Marriage and on Gathering into local congregations and communities for Kingdom service. No end-time work can succeed without these strong and vibrant.

A great deal has changed since I last taught this course in 2001. The Enemy is reorganising, old empires are waning and new ones are rising. America and Europe are in terminal decline and no charismatic president can ever make it great again. Russia and China are rising, as we have been prophesying would happen now for so long (e.g. OB 279). Old élites are being defeated and replaced by new élites as judgment culls the wicked in high places. Like chromosomes on a spindle of a meiotically dividing cell, the churches are separating out into two different camps, much like the increasingly polarisation of society itself. The West has arrived at a place not unlike the last days of the Roman Empire. This is profoundly unsettling for believers in search of constancy when Yahweh is in the business of violently shaking everything up. Marxism is once again on the rise, again as prophesied, but in new mutated forms (e.g. Postmodernism and Wokeism) that are ever changing, because satanic power is all its leaders are really interested in. Ideology is only a tool for them.

Only the spititually strong will remain firmly attached to the True Vine which is our Messiah during these massive times of change and unheaval. Those who insist on clutching onto their old traditions cannot remain on the Vine for long which has patiently carried them up till now. There is a massive cleansing underway, a frighening prospect for most, but absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the Remnant. We are at the juncture where my generation is taking its leave and is urgently preparing the last generation for its spiritual birthing. As soldiers grow old they are retired from the front and are placed in the rear to train their replacements and new recuits. Today - 29 May 2024 - is my last day 'at the front' and this will be the last of my regular public sermons. From now on my task is to be almost exclusively devoted to training those who will take over.

But this is not mere intellectual training. My purpose is not just theological instruction. That's mostly complete save for the know-how needed for the running of firstborn communities both at rest and on the march. Our testimony, if we are to be of any value to the last generation, must be the same testimony of the talmidim (disciples) of John which can be summarised in one statement:

"We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn.1:14, NIV).

For John himself, this came about from actually walking and serving with the Saviour on the earth as a youth and being taught by Him of all His ways, a privilege none of us enjoys or can ever enjoy until He returns to the earth to once more dwell with His people. Our knowledge is, at best, second-hand, yet like Paul, who received a fresh revelation building on the old, we are privy to many of Heaven's deepest truths which are essential for the Remnant who aspire to the Holy City. And though today, as then, we have access to the same living Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) who taught Paul in his own wilderness, such instruction cannot be obtained by merely attending and listening to seven sermons. My instruction by itself is quite worthless; for without some kind of personal, transformative spiritual 'transfiguration-like' experience, by which means all true Johannine talmidim (disciples) actually come to 'know' Yahweh and one another in mystical union, there is no proper entry into the New Covenant Melchizedek Priesthood, and certainly no possibility of entering the Holy City when it 'comes' at the beginning of the Millennium. Remnant Christianity isn't solely personal Christianity but collective or communal Christianity. It can only 'happen' with physical gathering and fellowship. Meeting at ones personal convenience on the internet can never be enough - you don't make proper relationships that way.

Many years ago a brother came to us for fellowship and discipling in this School whose motives were not pure. People come up to this work for all kinds of different reasons and most leave it when their own agendas fail to gain traction because they don't match ours. This we fully expect. Of the many millions of candidates who have presented themselves before our Heavenly Father in the course of the last 6,000 years or so, only '144,000' and their families are in the end admitted. Of these, the bulk have already lived and died and have long since gone to be with our fathers in the world of spirits, awaiting the resurrection in order to join Messiah's train as He returns to the earth again. These are the Kings and Cohenim (Priests) spoken of by the apostle John in his Book of Revelation who have navigated the trials and tribulations of mortality and remained as the true and loyal companions of the Master (Rev.1:6; 5:10).

This brother, of whom I now speak, was not of such spiritual quality. After some years he was asked to leave the Order and told that his calling was elsewhere. We blessed him and sent him on his way. He joined some other ministry or church where he found his home that was more akin to his own spiritual leanings. A few years later Yahweh showed me a vision. The economic collapse had taken place and believers were passing through great affliction. Realising what he had lost, he returned in the vision to the place where he had been trained and asked to leave, hoping to be let back in. The sky was dark and ominous. He knocked on the front door of the Order. I opened it and stepped outside to talk with him. He explained why he had returned and asked to be re-admitted. I explained to him that the power to admit him was not mine, that only our Heavenly Father could do that. If he was worthy of the high and holy calling to be a Melchizedek Priest he would be able to enter on his own without being personally admitted by myself or any other member of the Order. Upon saying that, I went back into the building, closing the door behind me, leaving it unlocked. At once he took the handle, opened the door and attempted to cross the threshhold, only to find himself blocked by an invisible force. He tried to enter many times but each time failed. At length he became desperate, and began to cry and wail, begging to be admitted and find safety from the by now very dangerous world where he was outside. I could do nothing for I was not his judge, but rather the Almighty. After much crying he walked away dejected, and the vision closed.

The Johannine Order is not a man-made organisation like a church denomination. It is the Holy Order of Messianic Israel. The Order in John's day, and in the years immediately after his passing, at length disappeared owing to apostacy. Aside from the occasional individual here and there over the centuries, the Order has not been organised again until our day as we prepare for the Final Gathering and commence the Last Exodus. It is not the creation of any man nor is it administered by any man. If it were, it would be false. It spontaneously forms when the elect gather, and specifically into 12 different tribal entities. It has its Priesthood officers, callings and stewardships. We teach and witness. Those who are called, come of their own accord. This is not a Christian 'seminary' or Jewish 'Yeshiva'. It does not advertise, recruit or market itself. We preach in the local congregations and online, and the called gather for training, make enquiry of their own, and each with his or her own story to tell of Elohim's (God's) dealings with them. It cannot be infiltrated by the Enemy. Those who are lukewarm are spat out, like the brother I mentioned. They either have the spiritual fruits or they do not. By this means the gathering takes place and the end-time Priesthood is raised. It follows in the Johannine Way - the Way taught by the Saviour to the young apostle John, and to Lazarus, to the three Mary's, to Martha, and to others who joined their august band. This is a unique fellowship unlike anything else in the world. No one comes into it by any other door than the Door of the Master's Sheepfold (Jn.10:1-6) - and that Door is the Master Himself (Jn.10:7-9).

I am often asked what sort of numbers will be involved in this Final Gathering. According to what has been shown to me, the elect of the last day comprise around 900,000 souls. Of these, 1 in 8 are men and 7 in 8 are women. Of the actual Holy Order apostolic leadership, 1 in 13 are patriarchs and 12 in 13 are matriarchs. Yes, there will be a huge gender imbalance, as prophesied (Is.4:1), hence, in part, provision being made for large families once again as in days of old. The rôle of women will therefore be very prominent indeed, a reason we have devoted so much time over the decades to preparing them for their increased responsibilities. Christendom is not remotely prepared for this, damaged as it has been by secular ideas of feminism and notions of co-headship in marriage infiltrating the churches. All these baneful influences have to be completely extirpated from the Remnant. I cannot say how many of the 900,000 elect will actually physically gather into the cities of reuge or how many will be called to remain in the churches and the world bearing witness there to the end, but I imagine it will be many. So I cannot say exactly how many souls will actually gather. That's something we may never know until the gathering actually happens. If the statistics given in the Book of Revelation are anything to go by, then a considerable number of these will be martyrs. We don't even know how many of the 144,000 will be on earth at the very end, remembering that the vast majority have most likely already passed on.

The Johannine Community has a unified doctrine and practice. It's not a 'broad ship' like the Anglican Church and a number of other contemporary denominations. For the Johannine Community, all doctrine is essential because of its quest for the perfection commanded of it (Mt.5:48; 19:21; Phil.3:12; Col.1:28; Heb.10:14; 1 Jn.4:18). It's foundation is ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) and its derech (way) narrow and strict.

Those who come by the long spiritual route (the 'low road' in the metaphorical valleys), who are at first resistant to change, come through the local assemblies where they are taught the strictness of the way - the hard way - until their disposition to rebell and their failure to submit to Yahweh are either burned out of them or they leave and return from whence they came. These are they who are made believers by the preaching of men and the careful instruction of the Word. The route is longer but less demanding though far more risky. It's the route Lot took. It's the way of the lay membership who, though called, never aspire to serve in the Priesthood. It was for these believers that our gigantic website was mostly created, to help them navigate their way through the morass of truth and lies in the world.

Those who come by the shorter spiritual route (the 'high road' in the metahphorical mountains) have been made believers from the womb, like John the Baptist, and need no human instructors of the kind provided by the outer assemblies or are self-made pursuers of truth. These souls are walking closely with our Heavenly Father and are being instructed as they so walk. These are they who make themselves believers, on their own initiative who push themselves forward by self-will, through their own lives of consecration and sumbission to Elohim (God). The route is shorter but much more demanding requiring much more diligence and vigilence. It's the route Abraham took. It's the route Paul took. These are they who pusue Elohim (God) like a woman in love pursuing her man. This then is the meaning of the grotesquely mistranslated passage about eunuchs that I spoke to you about not so long ago. Let me remind you of the Aramaic original:

"For there are faithful ones (believers), which were so born from their mother' womb, and there are faithful ones (believers) which were made of man, and there are faithful ones (believers) which are self-made faithful ones (believers) for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. Whoever can accept, let him accept" (Mt.19:12, HRV).

If your heart is on fire by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), if you have stayed with me these last seven weeks, and if you believe our witness and accept the life of which we speak, then you are more than likely called into Chavurat Bekorot for Priesthood training. But you have to desire it with all your heart. If you are not, then either you are not called or are not yet ready. If the latter, do not be distressed, for each man and woman has his or her season to enter this calling. And those who are trying to take short-cuts or fake it, in order to infiltrate or secure a position of responsibility without making the required sacrifice, or who are trying to find refuge in the community without being willing to pay the price of submission, discipleship and service, will meet the fate of the brother I earlier described to you. Make no mistake about that.

Let me give you one other illustration of how this works. Though we have group instruction like this in congregations and in priesthood schools, for the most part is it very personal on a 'one-to-one' basis. There is no way of 'hiding in a crowd' and becoming a metaphorical 'camp-follower'. One-to-one instruction is the way instruction mostly takes place over a period of time. It is not easy to get into this work but extremely easy to leave it (the reverse is true of a cult). A brother or sister will come to us, whom the Ruach (Spirit) testifies is called, and we will instruct him or her in lots of small stages. There are many keys to the Kingdom that we have received by revelation that we don't publish anywhere for reasons you will presently understand and not because of some dark motive as we're sometimes accused of. For the Patriarchate and their wives this is the way instruction is given. This is also the way the Eldership is trained beyond a certain point. Why? Because general instruction can only go so far.

This is the way I was educated in Oxford University and it is very effective. We attended lectures every day and then we were given private tutorials with two or three tutors once a week each. By this means the tutors could both ensure we properly understood and ensure we weren't faking it! You can't learn by rote on a one-to-one basis. A good tutor will search you thoroughly. This both kept us on our toes and made sure we actually understood what we claimed we had learned. It was tough but effective. I did not enjoy it at the time but like any discipline I can look back now with graditude. It taught me to be thorough examine all the evidence and leave no stone uncovered. It also taught me to be realistic and not get side-tracked by an over-active imagination. Imagination has its creative place to be sure, especially when it comes to innovation, but truth in particular need no 'innovation'. Truth is truth.

The way Elohim (God) has shown us how we are to both take care of and tutor converts and priesthood traineees is through shared ministry. Ultimately if the brethren and sisters are walking as they are supposed to be walking, everyone will be a teacher and a minister, teaching and ministering in accordance with their knowledge, competence and mandate. Elders teach and supervise Deacons, Deacons teach and supervise Sub-Deacons (trainee Deacons), Sub-Deacons teach and supervise full members, baptised members and catechumens (investigators) in cells in the house communities or churches. Thus the congregation is organised into Elders' Cells and Deacons' Cells (see below).

Let us say I am speaking to a brother and he comes to the Holy Order asking for instruction. I will tell him to go away and pray to the Father and ask Him to tell him what He wants him to know. If he is genuinely walking with Yahweh-Elohim, he will return with a key of understanding that he has obtained by personal revelation that he has heard from no other place or no-one else. Having shared that key with me, which he believes he alone is privy to (since it is a private word of prophecy), he will then be greatly astonished to discover that we have an unpublished teaching on that very key which he is then given access to inside a temple or priesthood school. Sometimes it can be a whole book. Invariably he will return astonished, glorifying Elohim (God), because he has received confirmation not only that his revelation was true but given a whole set of other keys to fill out that revelation with completely with Bible studies to back this revelation up. By this means he will learn a more sure word of prophecy works.

This is often how we work and by this means the firstborn sons and daughters are edified and brought to deeper truth. Both teacher and the taught thereby learn to live by personal revelation through communion with Yahweh our Father. It cannot be faked. Those who walk this way grow spiritually strong very rapidly. Often times what is shared with the student is something that has been painstakingly revealed to us over many, many years. This is also a testimony to me that I have not misheard Father and that we are both walking in emet (truth). It is one of the most exciting and personally satisfying ways to walk but it does require a priori spiritual discipline: proper submission, an active prayer life, diligent Bible study, fasting, and the pursuit of holiness. It means walking in the Ruach (Spirit).

As you will perhaps by now appreciate, this kind of spiritual education is quite unlike the way 'education' is done in the state or public school system, the universities, and most especially the church seminaries where students are spoon-fed by professors and doctors of theology, memorise what they have been taught, and then regurgitate it their Sunday Schools and Yeshivas. Yes, we absolutely do very careful and painstaking biblical exegesis but in the case of the Melchizedek Priesthood this comes alongside the revelation to teacher and student. What you have mostly heard me preach and teach in public is that - Bible exegesis - but the Melchizedek Priestood is already 'in the know' because Father has already taught them face-to-face. They 'know' in their spirits. They don't simply 'have (brain) knowledge'. This is what the navi (prophet) Jeremiah meant when Yahweh said through him:

"'I will put My Torah (Law) in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their Elohim (God),
and they will be My people.
No longer will a man teach his neighbour,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know Yahweh,'
because they will all know Me,
from the least of them to the greatest,'
declares Yahweh" (Jer.31:33-34, NIV).

And though there are millions of Christians who believe this is already an actuality in their lives, their belief is for the most part pure fantasy, because they have not arrived at this stage of spiritual sanctification yet. They often imagine that they have the 'Spirit' when it is their own subjective flesh - or worse, demons from false anointings - speaking to them. Nearly all of these would immediately fail the tests of the Holy Order with everyone being found to be walking after their own imaginations and in their own delusion (2 Thess.2:11). You'll not find what I am here talking about today in any lawless Pentecostal or Charismatic Church, for instance.

So if any of you have come here thinking you can just sit back and be passively spoonfed you are greatly mistaken. You are not only called but must also make the effort to "come to" the most intimate - and at the same time most challenging - kind of discipling program there is. You must come - 'present yourself' - to Christ and to the Order for learning as an aspirant wife presents herself to her husband as Ruth did to Boaz by sleeping at his feet (Ruth 3).

"But you have come to Mount Zion and to the [holy] city of the living Elohim (God), the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of malakim (angels), to the {General} Assembly (Community) {and Church} [1] of the Firstborn who are registered (written, recorded, enrolled) [as citizens] in heaven, to Elohim (God) the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Yah'shua (Jesus) the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling (Ex.24:8) that speaks better things than that of Abel" (Heb.12:22-24, NKJV).

The fact that the journey is depicted as a "Mount" implies a climb and climbing is much harder work than walking. It's going to take effort, initiative, and determination - indeed all those qualities you would expect you would need to struggle - to "overcome". The imagery you're supposed to carry is that of Jacob wrestling with the malak (angel) at Peniel all night until sunrise:

"That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, 'Let me go, for it is daybreak.' But Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.' The man asked him, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he answered. Then the man said, 'Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with Elohim (God) and with men and have overcome'" (Gen.32:22-28, NIV).

This is the exact opposite of the expectations of the lazy 'Once Saved, Always Saved' mentality whose false doctrine can find no justification anywhere in the writings of John. Indeed such are warned:

"We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through [proactive] faith (emunah) and patience inherit what has been promised" (Heb.6:12, NIV).

Consider the hip for a moment. What do you suppose it might symbolise? The hip is the connection between the upper and lower halves of your body and therefore points to many levels. It is the link between your conscious and unconscious being - your overcoming must extend to both until both are yielded to Elohim (God), for you will remember Jacob goes on to explain who, by proxy, he was actually wrestling with:

"So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, 'It is because I saw Elohim (God) face to face, and yet my life was spared'" (Gen 32:30, NIV).

Perhaps you haven't grasped the scale and import of what is going on here. Jacob is our model, of the devious carnal man overcoming his fallen Adamic nature through engaging with Elohim (God) by proxy through a malak (angel) - here called a "man" - because many of our encounters with the divine are also through the agency of men on earth as well as malakim (angels) appearing as men. This was not Jacob literally engaging in a wrestling contest with the Creator of the Universe. Yahweh reveals Himself to us through human agents, both in blessing and in punishment. He sends us teachers to instruct us when we're cooperating with Yahweh, enemies to oppose us when we aren't cooperating with Yahweh. Blessings and difficulties are strewn across our way which Father both sometimes proactively orchestrates to enable us and permits through the instrumentality of others to chastise us. It's not, moreover, always obvious which is which, and that's where trusting Him comes in. Just because someone is suffering doesn't automatically mean they are sinners being punished - it can just as well be spiritual training. And that is why we should be very, very slow to judge others' struggles. Leave such judgment to the Father.

Resist the lies of 'Prosperity' teachers who say if you're poor you either don't have enough faith or are sinning. As I recall, Yah'shua (Jesus) and the faithful Apostles were all poor materially and poor in spirit or humble and that there is no shame or condemnation in either. Yah'shua (Jesus) taught both on at least two separate occasions:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit (humble), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt.5:3, NIV).

"Blessed are you who are poor (no money), for yours is the kingdom of Elohim (God)" (Lk.6:20, NIV).

So back to Jacob's dislocated hip. The hip is a fundamental pivot between upper and lower parts of the body, the conscious and unconscious, the spiritual and physical, and that often has to get 'dislocated', as it were, to straighten us out when we have wandered. If you've ever had a dislocated joint reset you'll know what I mean. The treatment is violent and painful but at least it's rapid - a sudden movement from intense pain to wellness. The hip is responsible for the correct balance of above and below. They allow you to 'move' through life so that you can manoeuvre and maintain your balance in life. Between the hips are our buttocks where we sit and rest. So the hips are a key area of overall integrity. The hip can denote stubbornness (if we refuse to move and navigate the way Yahweh intends), power (because they propel our whole body), immobility as the result of demonic hindrance (requiring deliverance or a drastic 'reset'), strength and most importantly of all, and as illustrated so well in the Jacob incident - a call to change from being self-reliant to becoming Elohim/God-reliant! Jacob became a new, surrendered man at Peniel and received a name-change to indicate that change - Israel.

John tell us in the Book of Revelation that, on the one hand, the overcomers receive a "new name" written on a "white stone" (that's 'Peter the Pebble' imagery) (Rev.2:17); and on the other hand:

"Him who overcomes I (Yah'shua/Jesus) will make a pillar in the Temple of my Elohim (God). Never again will he leave it. I (Yah'shua/Jesus) will write on him the Name of My Elohim (God = Yahweh) and the Name of the City of my Elohim (God), the New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my Elohim (God); and I will also write on Him my New Name" (Rev.3:12, NIV).

Are you getting the import - the scale - of this? What does the overcomer receive or become?

• 1. He becomes a pillar in the Temple of Elohim (God);
• 2. He will never leave that Temple (because he's a permanently ministering Cohen/Priest;
• 3. he will have the Father's Name, YAHWEH, written on him;
• 4. He will have the Name of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, written on him ('Eden-Astara'); and
• 5. He will also have the NEW NAME of Christ written on him ('Hephzibah-Beulah').

Recall that Israel is given a "new name" also at a time that can only be referring to the Millennium. That New Name will be given when the nations and their rulers see something in Yahweh's people that they have never properly seen before:

"The nations will see your righteousness,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of Yahweh will bestow"
(Is.62:2, NIV).

All of these names and inscriptions describe a present spiritual reality or personal condition of being, in other words, a new status. We're told what that new name is in Isaiah 62:

"You will be a crown of splendour in Yahweh's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your Elohim (God).
No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah;
for Yahweh will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
As a young man marries a maiden,
so will your sons marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your Elohim (God) rejoice over you"
(Is.62:3-5, NIV).

Notice the marriage motif squarely in there because marriage is a condition of simcha (joy) - heavenly marriage is simcha (joy). Where Elohim (God) is, marriage is, because marriage is eternal, the literal and the allegorical, as I was at pains to point out to you in Parts 2c and 2d and indeed in practically everything I write about because marriage IS what the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, IS. It is precisely defined by its quality of 'eternal-marriedness' because that is the default Divine State which has been imaged down on us to pursue.

What do you think the relationship is between Father Yahweh and the sevenfold Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) if not a Divine Marriage? When Yahweh made us in Their image ("Let us make man in our image, in our likeness" - Gen.1:26, NIV) what kind of marriage do you think He was talking about? The Royal kind, of course, the plural kind, which is why Yahweh is depicted both in terms of singuality ('El', 'Elah', 'Eloah') and (the more common) plurality (Elohim) because He/They are a plurality of Majesty, Glory and Persons. They're projected or imaged as a single pair (Adam & Eve) at first and then as Jacob and his four wives (the number 4 depicting earthly life, 4 also being 3+1, or New Beginning) and as King David and his seven legitimate wives (the number 7 depicting heavenly life and completeness), David being, you will remember from Psalm 48 that we discussed in Part 2d, the type of our Messiah. Should you be surprised, then, when at the beginning of the Millennium 7 women beg an honourable man - a man with a shem tov or 'good name' - to be his wives...to be his honourable wives like himself...and like the seven wives of David?

There is nothing random in any of this for those who have eyes with which to see who refuse to cement them shut when human tradition demands they yield to human conditioning, to think and act in the over-simplistic, babyish 'orthodox' way. They may call it 'historic Christianity' but that is only because they took possession of history by force...by human 'might' and 'power' whether it be the apostate Gnostic sect or the Constantinian institutional state. History is only on the side of the apostates for a while - this is why Father has ordained a Second Coming by force, might and power. We fallible human beings, on the other hand, are not to usurp that divine prerogative but are to follow the injunction: "'Not by might nor by power, but by My Ruach (Spirit),' says Yahweh of Armies ('the LORD of hosts' - NKJV)" (Zech.4:6, NKJV). We are to let the Creator do the forcing when humanity as a whole refuses to repent. Meanwhile we humans are to use gentle, spiritual persuasion. Human force tends to lead to stagnation and stunting of spiritual growth because under such conditions we lack the wisdom to exercise the power of the Elohim (Godhead) righteously, save for a few called elohim, Yahweh's appointed rulers and leaders. Look at the dumbed down condition of the present generation and you will see what I mean for they are a product of social coersion and propagandistic brainwashing.

Do you also see the name(s) given in Isaiah 62 - the 'new name' - is actually several 'names' or depictions of the new millennial reality and status of Israel when the New Jerusalem finally arrives on earth. Up until this time Israel - and we're here talking about Messianic Israel (since Israel acquired a new status when her King arrived, whom, as we have seen in Revelation, will also receive a New Name). Those blood descendants of Jacob who rejected their Messianic King revert back to the old carnal name of 'Jacob' and losing the privilege of being called 'Israel'. Messianic Israel is first named 'Deserted' (like an abandoned city) and her land called 'Desolate' (the cultivated land having reverted to wilderness). These are both pretty good descriptions of the apostate churches today. But when her Master returns and He sorts out the mess, dividing the wheat from the tares and the sheep from the goats - Mt.13:25-33). Then Messianic Israel will be called 'Hephzibah' (the name, incidentally, of Hezekiah's known wife (2 Ki.21:1), which means 'my delight is in her', a picture of a husband's joy with his wife - the marriage motif again). And the land of Israel will be named 'Beulah' (which, remember, John Bunyan borrowed for his famous book, Pilgrim's Progess, to depict a scene in paradise and bliss, 'Beulah' being the Hebrew word for...guess what...'married'). Why does Yahweh call the City and Land "my delight is in her" and "married"? He tells us in verse 4, remember?

"For Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married" (Is.62:4b, NRSV).

This, in a nutshall, is the ASTARA-EDEN PRINCIPLE, a marriage union of City and Garden or Land that together make up Paradise-regained on earth, the new Eden and the New Jerusalem combined. Satan loathes this as much as he loathes plural marriage, and not just that indeed but the whole idea and practice of marriage itself, because they stand against his dark kingdom of sterility, atomisation, singleness, loneliness, misery and death - which are his chief character hallmarks. And he has been busy ever since his fall trying to make humanity as sterile and lonely as he is. Look at the insanity, sterility and loneliness of the sick post-Christian, postmodernist, 'woke', unisexual, hermaphrodite culture around you today, where male and female distinctives were are first blurred during the Hippie Revolution of the 1960's when I was a young man and then reversed into a state of confusion today 60 years on where everything is now upside down. The West is sick and dying today because it has rejected both its Judaeo-Christian foundations as well as scientific rationalism.

Let me here share with you the keys to another mystery today as a parting gift to my brethren in the German lands who have been unjustly demonised because of a 12 year departure into satanic insanity between 1933 and 1945, and that concerns the Mystery of Joseph the Firstborn, and rival of Reuben (the deposed firstborn because of immorality) and of Judah (who has greedily wanted to be the firstborn and be the vehicle of the Messianic Seed). Joseph as "a fruitful bough by a well, his branches run over the wall" (Gen.49:22) is a complex story for he is One Nation, Two Nations, Three Nations and more. Yahweh created two tribes out of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, and then created two nations out of Manasseh, all of which would play leading rôles in prophetic history. Remember tribal Manasseh was divided into two when Joshua settled the Holy Land, with one half settling first on the east side of the Jordan River and one afterwards on the west side. Manasseh is the German people and for a thousand years was one nation known as 'The Holy Roman Empire of the Germans' (or 'The Empire' for short or 'First Reich') consisting initially of a few kingdoms and hundreds of tiny principalities.

Through a long and complicated process the Germany nation split basically into two, the highly organised scientific and industrial Prussia (essentially Protestant) in the north and the dreamy musical and poetical Austria (essentially Catholic) in the south. Bavaria (Bayern), the Palatinate (Pfalz), Baden and Württemberg (and Elsaß-Lothringen or Alsace-Lorraine, which France/Reuben seized) are strictly-speaking 'southern-Austrian' but ended up in the north when they joined the Prussian-led 'North German Confederation', forming the new 'Germany' or 'Second Reich' in 1871. Prussia and Austria were, and are (even though Prussia doesn't technically exist any more) balances for each other, the Edenic Garden State of the south and the Astaran City State of the North, two vital aspects of the Manasseh/German soul. They will one day be reunited to be their whole self. When 'Frederic the Great' (Prussia) is united with 'Mozart' (Austria), as it were, they will be able to produce something resembling a Holy City but for now they are out of balance. As it is, their energies have been channelled into a EU totalitarian, parasitic 'black hole' which some claim is a 'Fourth Reich' since Germany dominates it.

One other interesting fact. Though the United States was founded by Ephraim (with Reuben/France creating problems in the north and Reuben/Spain in the south, exactly as they had done in Europe), German emigration eventually exceeded that from Great Britain making the United States a Manassehite nation, and therefore West Manasseh, with Ephraim/Britain retaining Canada. The United States is essentially a German colony as Canada is a British one in terms of settlers and at one ploint there was even discussion about making German that nation's language. Both Ephraim and Manasseh have been 'fruitful boughs whose branches ran over the wall'. Sadly, the UK, Germany, Austria, the USA and Canada along with the rest of the West are now in an advanced state of apostacy and moral degradation with the UK and Germany/Austria becoming rapidly deindustrialised. We are also seeing a split taking place in the NATO Alliance that will result in the American Joseph (Germany/Austria) become 'Astara' or a 'City State' devoid of light and European Joseph become an 'Eden' likewise devoid of light.

For those of you interested in prophetic history I can talk to you about this in greater detail another time. Suffice to say the Enemy has always tried to keep Germany and Austria apart, and Britain hostile to Germany/Austria and vice verse when they were natural allies as Germanic peoples and so operated in the Napoleonic wars against Reuben/France when that nation ran rampant through Europe causing chaos and destruction, initially fuelled by communistic-atheistic ideas. It was the Methodist Revival in England that prevented England/Ephraim going the same way, resisting and finally defeating France/Reuben with the aid of Prussia/Manasseh, not forgetting Russia's important rôle. I wish only to say in connection with all of this that the Joseph nations have now lost their moral authority because of mushrooming wickedness. Leadership is passing to Russia and China for a season in the run-up to the final Beast System's take-over.

Let us return to the Johannine theme as there is more I need to share with you before I go. All that I have taught you in these seven teachings are, as I have said, only introductions to the firstborn work that we have been called to. I think you'll agree that we have found so much we could talk about that there is never going to be enough time to plumb it all. Besides, we have to translate all this understanding into practical action now. We are not given this knowledge to simply consume upon our idle intellectual lusts. With knowledge comes responsibility and stewardship, the obligation to use it to the glory of Elohim (God) and for the benefit of mankind.

So I ask you this question: are those of you who have gladly received all this knowledge now, and indeed in the past (for I know many have been devouring our website over the years) - are you now willing to step forward and make yourself available for service in this end-time work? There is a lot of work to be done! None of what we do is for your entertainment or to simply satisfy intellectual curiosity. We are here to advance and continue with the Final Exodus and initiate the Final Gathering of the end-time qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). Our task is a sober and exacting one. That is now our most urgent task - your, the last generation's - most urgent task, as my generation are taken home one by one. I will have reached my biblically-allotted 'three-score-and-ten' (70) years in a month's time so I do not know how much time I will be granted to remain (Ps.90:10).

The Besorah (Gospel) of Yah'shua (Jesus) is an exciting thing, particularly when you dive deep enough into it to see the Whole coming together. The New Covenant Assemblies of Yahweh (NCAY), and its Priesthood Order, are here to announce an end to the confusion that has fragmented Christendom, not by claiming like various groups that we are somehow legalistically and organisationally the "one and only true church" (like the Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Mormons, Churches of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses, some messianic groups, etc.) but by showing that Yahweh has given us the keys of understanding which have created something truly wonderful - a fellowship of believers in the Master of the same spiritual pedigree as the apostle John and the Ephesian Community (Church) which he presided over. We want to share that spirit with you for mutual service and edification.

Unfortunately, there are not a few bogus claimants to this Johannine tradition. Most of them are tainted or defiled by occultism, Kabbalism and Gnosticism. In the year 2001, when I originally gave this teaching, we met another one who claimed to occupy the apostle John's shoes in the Apostolate. He was at first very convincing until he betrayed his true spiritual origin by denying the teachings of Paul. Satan's counterfeits always attack some part of the Besorah (Gospel) or one or more of the first apostles. This is the second or third pseudo-Johannine group I have come across that has lampooned the apostle Paul - and I have rebuked all of them, calling them to repentance. The authentic Johannine tradition accepts all the Bible and all its teachings as being the Davar Elohim (Word of God).

As Messianic Evangelicals we stand unapologetically on the authority and truthfulness of the Protestant canon of the Bible, without compromise. We take all of its counsel, not just those parts we like, and in the matter of the New Testament, all 27 books. Moreover, any individual or group that claims to have knowledge of a "secret tradition" which ignores or contradicts even one verse of the Bible, be i the Book of Mormon (or its 'Sealed Portion'), Mary Baker Eddy's 'Science & Health', Book of Enoch, the Book of Jasher, the Gospel of the Essenes, the Gospel of the Holy Twelve, the Nazarene Acts of the Apostles, the Recognitions of Clement, the Book of Urantia, the Keys of Enoch, numerous Pseudepigraphical and Apocryphal works found in various canons of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Ethiopian Churches, and many more books besides, is to be rejected as Holy Scripture. The apostles of the New Testament Community (Church) were, in spite of occasional circumstantial disagreements (like Paul and Barnabas - Ac.15:36), totally echad or one in their doctrine of Messiah. They may have struggled, as all believers do, to try and understand the whole picture, but understand it sufficiently they most certainly did. The apostolic tradition consisted of one Master, one Emunah (Faith), and one Baptism (Eph.4:5). Their teachings all agreed with one another. On this point we resolutely stand.

As we have now seen in the six preceding teachings, and particularly the last one, salvation and sanctification do not occur all in one go. The first saving act of trusting in Yah'shua (Jesus) as Messiah (Christ) does not lead a soul to the literal perfection demanded of Messiah (Mt.5:48; 19:21; Heb.11:40) as distinct from the legal concepts of representational or substitutionary perfection which we obtain automatically through being joined to Christ by emunah (faith). If they do not rest on the seven essentials, the seven wells of salvation and spirit baptism that lead to the seven openings and the seven overcomings that John insists we attain before we can receive the most cherished blessings of all, then an incomplete Besorah (Gospel) is being preached. I wonder if you can remember them? Let's quickly run through them.

There are many believers who are going to be surprised when they are hurt by the second death (Rev.2:8-11). The idea that a believer is going to suffer in the next life is a wholly alien concept to some which they would probably in their unwise zeal mark down as yet another "heresy". Yet they never pause to ask themselves what John meant when he addressed the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) of Smyrna. They are so blinded by the junk theology that is circulating in the churches that they would rather deny the Davar (Word) than repudiate their own traditions. Let's just take a look at this verse to remind us of what is involved:

"...He who overcomes will not be hurt at the second death" (Rev.2:11; cp. 20:6,14; 21:8).

What's the the corollary of this? He who doesn't overcome will be hurt at the second death. Have you noted that? If you, as a believer, have not overcome the vices of the Smyrneans by the time you come to heaven, you are going to be HURT. Yes, you may be saved, you may be trusting in Messiah, you may be legally covered by the blood through faith, but unless you have overcome this problem you are going to suffer PAIN in the spiritual world. In short, you will be punished by your own un-overcome sins in spite of being legalistically covered by the blood. That's not my teaching. That's what Christ taught John. So unless you're going to start throwing more apostles out you don't like (as those Messianics who dislike Paul throw him out), and so break up the integrity of the New Testament, you have to embrace this teaching and not try to make it fit into some preconceived Calvinistic doctrine about election or 'once saved, always saved', or 'instant sanctification' upon conversion. These are all antinomian (lawless, anti-Torah), watered-down, make-believe, illusiory versions of the 'gospel'

There is an extraordinary naïvité, if not presumption, in evangelical Christendom about what's expected of believers by our Heavenly Father. It's a bit like undergraduates thinking that so long as they gain admission to College that everything will be plain sailing and that an academic degree will automatically be waiting for them at the end of their stay. Gaining entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven does not mean that you automatically obtain the highest rewards. Being initially saved does not mean that you are automatically standing in the Throne Room of Yahweh in the Holy of Holies before the Almighty Elohim (God) of Creation having bypassed every entrance or gateway. You are given access to our Heavenly Father through the crucifed and resurrected Christ, yes. Heaven isn't just one room or mansion where everyone is herded upon accepting Christ - there is an uncountable number of them. Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself said so - and guess who brings this to our attention? The man-in-the-know - John, of course (Jn.14:12)!

The Kingdom of Yah'shua (Jesus) is exceedingly large and complex with many divisions. In its essentials it is easy to understand and apply provided you are willing to die to self. But that's the big problem. People want entrance there whilst simultaneously retaining some sort of personal sovereignty over their lives. They are not too interested in a life-long spiritual struggle for the privilege of finally entering the Kingdom of Heaven 'body and soul', as it were. Our modern Christian/Messianic wants something inexpensive in the cost and speedy in the delivery - he wants a quick, cheap, take-away 'MacDonalds- or Burger King-type Gospel' that costs him practically nothing and which gives him everything instantly on a dispensing tray. John tells them in no uncertain terms: you are absolutely and terribly wrong. And if you don't wake up to reality you, the believer, are going to suffer enormously in the next life. His message, and ours, is not therefore popular. However, none of you are here because you like me especially (though I hope some of you do) but hopefully because you know what I am telling you in my capacity as an Elder in the Johannine Community is the emet (truth).

Let's not permit the difficult questions raised by this Smyrnean example elude or pass us by. Let's resolve any controversy surrounding it. The Smyrnean Christians/Messianics suffered affliction and poverty and because they were willing to undergo this trial of their emunah (faith), they are described as being spiritually rich (v.4). These Smyrneans were being slandered by unbelieving Judahites (Jews) not unlike modern Talmudic Orthodox Jews who are persecuting and even murdering true believers - Messianic Jews - in the so-called state of Israel today. Notice that the malak (angel) says of them that they claim to be Jews but are not, but are a "synagogue of Satan" (v.9).

That's strong language. This one verse completely overturns a belief of about 70 per cent of the evangelical movement that the modern state of Israel is true "Israel" (Zionism) and that the unbelieving Jews who live there are true "Jews". Quite apart from the fact that the vast majority of "Jews" in the Republic of Israel aren't even descendants of Abraham and are therefore not biological or ethinic Jews at all, but rather are either religious or cultural Jews, the malak (angel) of Yahweh makes it perfectly clear that the only true "Jews" are those who are believers in Yah'shua (Jesus) who simultaneously have biological descent from Abraham...or who have been adopted into that family by ingrafting (like the Edomite Caleb). The only Jews or (more accurately) 'Judahites' or 'Yehudim' in Elohim's (God's) eyes are those who are truly Messianic. All the others who spurn the true Messiah are the synagogue of Satan because in their rejection of the true King of Israel they are signed up to the destructive satanic agenda. Therefore theirs cannot be an 'alternative' route to salvation, as Zionist Evangelicals claim. There is only One Derech or Way - Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus) - and that's the only way home...as John again tells us (Jn.14:6).

Now I know that is probably too bitter-a-pill for an unconditional, idolatrous Israeli-loving evangelical to swallow because they uncritically regard all Talmudic/Rabbinical Jews, no matter their character or spirtuality (or lack thereof) as the uncontested "apple of Elohim's (God's) eye" (Dt.32:10). And yet the Bible says they are the synagogue of Satan! The only true Jew is a Messiah-believing Jew - all the rest, including unbelieving 'Gentiles', belong to Satan because they are unsaved. And yet some governments and thousands of Christian and Messianic organisations are sending piles of money to facilitate non-Israelite unbelieving Jews who belong to the synagogue of Satan to emigrate to the Promised Land (where they persecute the true 'Jews') and support them in every war they wage and every wave of oppression they unleash on their non-Jewish co-residents with money, weapons and political backing. Why one set of morals and ethics applies to one group of people but to not of the rest is really quite insane if you come to think about it, and is spiritually unconscionable. Anyone engaging in such duplicitous, double-minded behaviour (Jas.1:8) is surely setting themselves up for a kind of religious schizophrenia. We are, rather, commanded by the Saviour to treat all men and women alike, be they family or stranger, believer or unbeliever, Jew or non-Jew, friend or foe because only by this means can the love of Christ be demonstrated and spread.

To be truly saved in Messiah is to be willing to forego any imagined privileges we may think are our right simply by suddenly believing. It also means we must be willing, if called upon, to undergo the privations of the ancient Smyrnean believers for the sake of He who died on the cross for us. To be an overcomer worthy of the highest rewards heaven offers and to forego being hurt by the second death is to be willing to lay down our own life for the cause of Messiah. It has always been so, long before Zionism was conceived by secular, communistic Jews in the 19th century. If you're one of those cowards who is weak in the emunah (faith), who refuses to suffer for Messiah (Rev.21:8), then even though you will probably make it to heaven (provided you don't deny Messiah) you will have to pass through fire in order to get that faithlessness burned out of you. But even then don't be too sure because John warns us in the Book of Revelation that the cowardly are in the end numbered alongside "the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars". All these must experience dying a second time round, in addition to their physical death, "in the fiery lake of burning sulphur" (Rev 21:8, NIV). What is the "second death"? Hell, of course, or the Lake of Fire, are one and the same thing. These believers won't be with the qodeshm (saints, set-apart ones) of the first resurrection. They won't be back on earth during the Millennium for it is written:

"Blessed and qadosh (holy, set-apart) are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be cohenim (priests) of Elohim (God) and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years...Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death" (Rev.20:6,14, NIV).